ShoreTel Spearheads Federated Workforce Discussion

As the unified communications market is poised for growth, ShoreTel experts in the UK recently met with some of the major UK IT publications to share our industry insight and expertise.

We put together a roundtable, entitled ‘The Federated Workforce’, which was attended by some of our most important partners and customers. All in attendance enjoyed the magnificent views from London’s Centre Point tower.

Moderated by Julian Tanner, from our EMEA PR agency AxiCom, the panel included leading industry analysts and reseller partners, such as Stephanie Watson, analyst at MZA, Keith Robinson of Avnet, Richard Bligh of Gamma Telecom, and Jason Evans of RDC.

Also present were ShoreTel customers Tim Omer, IT manager at CBS Interactive and David Bennett of the law firm Thomson Snell and Passmore.

Seven journalists joined this lively and engaging discussion from various IT publications, such as Computer Business Review, ComputerWorld UK and Information Age.

One of the key observations to come out of the discussion is that as new devices come to market and customer expectations increase, UC system vendors must help businesses simplify communications, cut through the complexity of multiple platforms and streamline business processes.

In addition to the challenges and opportunities facing organisations wishing to connect their workforce, UC also has important implications for channel resellers who should become ‘trusted UC advisors’.

As noted by Alex Scroxton of MicroScope in an article covering the roundtable: “There is a huge opportunity here for the channel, but the problem for resellers is how to insert themselves into that [UC] conversation.” (18th October 2010 issue)

I believe we have made an important step with this roundtable towards building such a conversation with all the relevant parties, and look forward to continuing this important dialogue.